DM Interviews

Dave Gahan

By Chloë Sevigny
Photography Willy Vanderperre

He calls them the Black Swarm. That’s the nickname that front man Dave Gahan has given those particularly obsessive fans who seem to devote their entire lives to following Depeche Mode. Gahan and his bandmates, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, who formed Depeche Mode in 1980, make music for outcasts. But considering the group’s extreme popularity over the past three decades, the Black Swarm may indeed outnumber the normal folks. The magic of Depeche Mode goes way beyond new wave. They write songs that are big enough to serve as arena chants but have all of the twisted personal emotion of diary entries (many fans would choose the 1986 album Black Celebration as the soundtrack of their youth). Last spring, Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher released their 12th full-length album, Sounds of the Universe, and set off on a global tour that was quickly sidelined when Gahan fell ill with a stomach ailment. But the Black Swarm need not despair: The group is back on the road and plans to be through the end of the year.

Actress Chloë Sevigny is a die-hard Depeche Mode fan. She discovered the band’s music in her early teen years in Connecticut, and a poster of Gahan occupied prime real estate on her bedroom wall. Here she talks to the 47-year-old singer about how lonely outsider teenagers become very popular adults.

DAVE GAHAN: Hi, Chloë.

CHLOË SEVIGNY: Hi! You’re not in New York?

GAHAN: No, unfortunately. I’m in London right now. We just rehearsed.

SEVIGNY: You’re preparing for the tour . . . You know, I tried to go see Depeche Mode 101 when I was a kid. I was in, like, junior high.

GAHAN: You must have been about 5 or something. [laughs]

SEVIGNY: I was not! I was about 14 or 15. I listened to a lot of music growing up. My father kept very current, and then I had my older brother. But Depeche Mode was the first band that was my own. It was my discovery.

GAHAN: Oh, cool.

SEVIGNY: But I couldn’t raise enough money to buy the concert tickets. My babysitting pay wasn’t really doing the trick. So there was this kid that hung out at the park where I grew up. He was kind of like Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Do you remember that character? He would sell concert tickets and pot and whatever else. This guy drove a Honda CRX with a WDRE bumper sticker. I went over to his car and was like, “Do you have any tickets for Depeche Mode?” He said, “Yeah, they’re some-odd dollars.” I didn’t have enough so he said, “If you give me a hand job, I’ll give you the tickets.”

GAHAN: Oh! No way.

SEVIGNY: I didn’t know what that was then, believe it or not. So I went back to my friends who were in another car and was like, “He said he’d give them to me if I gave him a hand job.” My friends said, “No! Don’t do it!”

GAHAN: Oh, my god.

SEVIGNY: So I never got to see 101, but I saw you guys many times after that. One of my favorite parts about seeing you live is what you do between song lyrics onstage. You do this thing where you move the microphone away from your face and you murmur to yourself or say something.

GAHAN: [laughs] Yeah, I do, yeah.

SEVIGNY: I was always curious what you’re saying. Do you feel limited by the songs, like you have to break out of the song a bit?

GAHAN: You’re onto something there. Actually, I thought about that yesterday when we were performing, because I also do my solo stuff. I kind of put together a separate band with the guys I knew from Los Angeles: Martyn LeNoble, who plays bass with me and comes from Porno for Pyros, and Victor Indrizzo, my drummer, who was with Beck. It’s very different from Depeche stuff, where everything is really settled and in place. I’m kind of the wild card—I’m that part of the band. And sometimes I get frustrated with the limits that I’m confined to. The way it works is very structured.

SEVIGNY: But those moments onstage are so dynamic.

GAHAN: That’s the animal in me. That’s the animal breaking out of the cage.

SEVIGNY: Another large part of the live shows is the fact that they become sing-alongs. The crowd gets to chant. Can you hear the crowd from the stage? Is it loud?

GAHAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, I don’t use in-ear [monitoring] like a lot of people use live. I still have live monitors. I’m kind of old-school. I have to feel the audience. I enjoy that feeling of community. There’s something sort of spiritual about it in a lot of ways. It’s like we’re all doing this together. You can really hear the people—especially at some of the gigs we’re going to be playing on tour. We started in Tel Aviv, where we played in a huge football stadium like when we played 101. But it’s like that all across Europe. We’ve never actually done a whole stadium tour like this, so it’s gonna be pretty crazy. I know some of those gigs are gonna be wild.

SEVIGNY: What are the best cities in terms of fans?

GAHAN: L.A. is always great. There’s something special about L.A. And New York, for me, because it’s home. There’s nothing quite like walking onstage at Madison Square Garden.

SEVIGNY: I saw you at Madison Square Garden.

GAHAN: I think I always kind of try that much harder because it’s home. I have a sense of duty there. But L.A.’s great. It’s different all over Europe. Like in Italy, everybody sings, and not just during the songs, but chants in between them—a whole football field. Milan is great. Paris is fantastic. London is tough—everyone’s a bit too cool for school.

SEVIGNY: Yeah, I’ve been to shows there. I’ve felt that.

GAHAN: It feels like when I come to London, the big gates close on me. It’s not my home. But Poland’s crazy, Prague is great, Budapest . . .

SEVIGNY: Do you think it’s the kids who are alienated who come to those cities that especially embrace the band? I feel like there is much more passion from the degenerates, the outcasts . . .

GAHAN: That’s always what it’s been. It’s always been the kids who weren’t so included in school—where something wasn’t quite right, and they weren’t like the other kids.

SEVIGNY: Yeah, I remember what that’s like.

GAHAN: I remember, when I was a kid, I could fake it pretty good. I had lots of different groups of friends. There were kids that sort of went to gigs and discos, the kids that hung out on the street and stole cars and stuff like that. I never stayed long enough for anyone to really get to know me, and that seems to be a bit of a pattern in my life. I think Martin [Gore] and I were both like that. We grew up with similar backgrounds. We both had stepfathers who we thought were our dads but weren’t. We grew up in a similar sort of distrusting way. So, you know, there are a lot of people like that out there—and I think Depeche Mode music somehow appeals to the oddball, to the person who is looking for something a little bit different.

SEVIGNY: But for a band that appeals to the outcast, you’ve sold a gazillion records.

GAHAN: There are a lot of freaks out there. [both laugh]

SEVIGNY: I wanted to ask you about the genesis of the twirling microphone. When did you start that? It captivates all of us ladies.

GAHAN: Well when it all began, before Martin would come down and play guitar with me, it was very much me on my own. Then eventually there was Alan [Wilder] and Fletch [Andrew Fletcher] and Martin, all up in their pods playing with the electronics and stuff. And I was down in front on my own. So I had to create my own little world. I mean, it was fine when we were playing little clubs and theaters. But all of a sudden it was, like, 200-foot stages that just felt so empty. That’s when I started to go into my own world and act out each song physically as well as with my voice. So the microphone stand became my partner . . . my dancing partner.

SEVIGNY: It’s so beautiful, the way you dance with it. Don’t you get dizzy with the twirling, or do you do it like a ballerina, where you look at one place?

GAHAN: I defy gravity, yeah. I don’t know how I stand up sometimes, but it can get a little out of control. It actually takes a few gigs to get into that again. It’s weird. There are different things in my performance that just kick in. Like if I don’t do certain things, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing a proper job.

SEVIGNY: That you’re not giving it your all.

GAHAN: I can’t go back now. When I started out I was like a shoegazer. I was terrified—I’m still terrified, but I just do a better job at covering that up. Years ago, when I was in my late teens, the best I could do was cling onto the microphone and stare at the floor. But over the years I’ve developed a way to use my body that helps.

SEVIGNY: I was reading online a bit, and you hinted at some songs that you might be playing in the new tour. And I was wondering if there was a chance you’d play “Stripped.”

GAHAN: Yep. There’s a very good chance that you will be seeing that one. And some old stuff, too. We’ve been rehearsing “Strange Love” and “Master and Servant.” It’s a little weird doing those, actually.

SEVIGNY: When you go back to singing early songs, like “Enjoy the Silence” or “Blasphemous Rumours”—and those are very deep songs—do they take on a different meaning than they did when you were a young man?

GAHAN: Yeah. Certain songs like “Enjoy the Silence”—to me, it always fits anywhere. There’s something about that song that’s really timeless, and I never get bored or feel like I have to muster something up. There’s real audience participation to that song, too, which helps. “Stripped” is also a bit of an anthem, so the audience really goes along. It’s always like the song at the end of time.

SEVIGNY: It’s a tearjerker. [Gahan laughs] I know when I’ve done plays with a long run, I’ve discovered new things as I’m saying the lines over and over again every night. But you’ve played these songs thousands and thousands of times. It must be hard to find the passion.

GAHAN: I worry about that sometimes. If I ever felt that happening, I would just say we really can’t do this anymore. I wouldn’t want the band to hate it or teeter out into complete nostalgia or whatever. There can be something great about that as well. Like, I understand when people still go to see the Stones. I mean, I saw them in New York at the Beacon Theater when [Martin] Scorsese was doing his documentary, and I was blown away by how good they were. But at the same time I was thinking, Wow, I don’t want to be doing this when I’m that old. [laughs]

SEVIGNY: I feel like gradually, from the earlier records to now, the sounds have been getting, maybe not darker, but more masculine, less dancey. Has that been a conscious decision?

GAHAN: I think it kind of happened organically. Going in to make Sounds of the Universe, we had more songs written between us than we ever have, and we tried to record all of them and compile the album from that. I still think of an album being an album. I think of it as having two sides, and the first side’s got to begin and end, and then the other side starts. But I think for some of the songs, in terms of instrumentation, we went back to more retro, dancey stuff. Vocally, I really like going into the darker side of myself. I like the feeling of redemption in a song where you get lifted from this dark place by the music and the melody. Even if the lyrics are really dark and twisted, I like a melody that lifts you. Music can do that. I still hold on to the idea that a record can really change the way I feel. It’s the only thing that does that instantly—you know, without consequences. [laughs]

SEVIGNY: Can I ask a little bit about the stage clothes? Fashion is one of my big hobbies.

GAHAN: Yeah, I noticed that you always wear pretty terrific outfits.

SEVIGNY: I feel like in the early days you were wearing some Gaultier, maybe?

GAHAN: Yeah, I did. You’re right.

SEVIGNY: And Martin was more into the kind of S&M stuff. Did you ever have a designer who did your stage clothes, or did you dress up all on your own?

GAHAN: Oh, no, we just all did our own thing. We’re still kind of like that, too. Even if I sit down with someone to work out what I’m going to wear, the way I want my suits to look, whatever, I sit with them and we draw up pictures and I pick the fabrics. I like doing that. I actually went to art school and dropped out in the third year. But one of the subjects that I really stayed with the longest was fashion. It was probably because the only guys in the class were me and this other guy, Iver, and the rest of the class was girls, so we got a lot of the attention.

SEVIGNY: [laughs] Who do you hire to make your suits?

GAHAN: On the last tour, Johan Lindeberg worked with me on the designs. For this tour, I worked with this girl in New York, April Johnson. She’s a stylist, and we sat down and drew up stuff. Martin’s also got some terrific outfits. But he’s dropped the wings. He thought it was time to put the wings away.

SEVIGNY: You guys both always had amazing looks, and the rest with their mock turtlenecks and long shorts and old leather jackets . . .

GAHAN: Yeah. I love the stuff in the beginning that we’d just get from thrift stores and put together. We really never had the money. If we ever did get some, the first thing we’d do is buy something expensive like a Jean-Paul Gaultier leather jacket or something. [laughs]

SEVIGNY: Do you wear the same thing every night, or do you mix it up?

GAHAN: I mix it up, I wear different things, but once I get into something that I really like, then I’ll have like four outfits done exactly the same, because I like to get into character for the whole thing. And once I get into it, it’s hard for me to jump out. I stay there. The thing about Depeche songs is that they’re so descriptive. For me, they tell some kind of story about a character who’s trying to redeem himself or to find something to believe in—some kind of faith or hope. We go about it in very destructive ways but hopefully come out the other side.

SEVIGNY: How many kids do you have?

GAHAN: I have a son who’s 21—he’s not so young anymore. He’s a man now. Then I have a 16-year-old stepson, Jimmy, and I have a 9-year-old daughter, Stella Rose.

SEVIGNY: I was wondering: One of Nick Cave’s sons is kind of modeling now, and he’s around, and, of course, there are all these young kids in New York who are sons or daughters of famous people—musicians or actors—and are kind of getting into the biz or being scenesters DJing and whatnot . . . Do you try to steer your own children away from that type of thing?

GAHAN: Yeah, my oldest son who lives in London is into music and he does his own thing and I know he wants to play music. He works for a promotion company. But my son in New York, Jimmy, he’s into basketball. It’s all about the Knicks.

SEVIGNY: I’ve never seen you at a Knicks game. I go all the time.

GAHAN: Oh, I’m at Knicks games sometimes. But Jim is always there. Playing basketball is a bit like being in a rock ’n’ roll band: It takes discipline to go out there and do something every night.

SEVIGNY: Being in a band is like being an athlete.

GAHAN: Yeah. I put on quite a show, and I pride myself on that. Because I go and see a lot of bands and sometimes I can feel let down. There are a few performers that I think are really great, like Nick Cave or Iggy Pop, who just throw themselves into the performance. But then you go and see people and they are so half-assed.

SEVIGNY: I get super starstruck. I met Siouxsie Sioux in London, and I couldn’t even—I mean, she’s so much of a hero and an icon to me.

GAHAN: I get a little intimidated by certain people like that as well. She’s pretty intimidating, Siouxsie. She’ll sort of slap you down pretty quick.

SEVIGNY: Talk about putting on a good show, too.

GAHAN: She’s great. I used to get really terrified by meeting people who I respected and liked. I met David Bowie once and I was terrified because I thought, what if I don’t like him? But he was really nice. We got on fine. I’m a big Bowie fan. I fall back on his stuff all the time. If I’m feeling a certain mood, I know I can put on Ziggy Stardust (1972) or Aladdin Sane (1973) and my mood will completely change. It just takes me to a place where I wanted to go when I was a teenager. It’s like where Bowie was, I wanted to go.

SEVIGNY: That’s why I think still performing the songs live even if you’ve done them a gazillion times is important to the fans. It brings them back to where they were as teenagers.

GAHAN: It’s true. That’s what I try to focus on as well. Like if I’m feeling a bit like I can’t do it tonight, or if I’m thinking about if they’ve got room service at the hotel or something [Sevigny laughs] and I drift off for a second and then I suddenly pull it back in, because it’s difficult to ignore Depeche Mode fans. They demand so much from you. That’s what a Depeche Mode show is. It’s a combined effort. And I always say it’s much bigger than us. It always has been. It’s like an entity, and it’ll be there long after we’re gone.

SEVIGNY: And you have some crazy, fanatical fans.

GAHAN: Yeah. It gets a bit scary in some places. We call them the Black Swarm.

SEVIGNY: Oh, I like that! Morrissey calls his superfans the Irregular Regulars.

GAHAN: [laughs] We have the Black Swarm, and literally in Europe you’ll see them at every show. I don’t know what they do. They work, I guess, and then once we do a tour, they buy tickets for all the shows.

SEVIGNY: Do they hang around the hotel, too, and stuff like that?

GAHAN: Some of them. They’re pretty cool, so we try to take care of them. Some of them can get pretty nutty, but they’ve learned over the years that timing is really important. I mean, if I’m with my family, I don’t want any of that around. I feel very protective around my kids. The boys can take care of themselves, but around my wife and daughter it’s like, not now. If they cross that line, I can get a little testy.

SEVIGNY: When you say that the band takes care of them, do you mean you hook them up with tickets?

GAHAN: Yeah, especially some of the ones who are traveling. You know they haven’t got tickets and you try and get them sorted out. Sometimes we’ve put fans on trains or planes and stuff to get them to the next place.

SEVIGNY: The Black Swarm. I love that.

FONTE: Home

Quanto mi piace questa frase!!!
Sono certa che anche il 18 Giugno sia rimasto soddisfatto del pubblico calorosissimo di San Siro! Abbiamo (ri)confermato quello che ha detto in quest'intervista!!! YEAAAH!!!


L'ho sempre detto che avrei voluto essere l'asta del microfono!!!
Ma guarda come mi devo ridurre per fare un passo a due con lui!!!


Ehhhh lasciamo sta!!!!! Ce ne siamo accorti tutti!!!
Li mortacci tua!!!


Ben detto Dave!! Hai ragione..è giusto che uno abbia la propria privacy, specialmente quando con te c'è la famiglia!
Se fossi al suo posto e mi dessero fastidio diventerei irascibile anche io!

Ammappate!!!! Che intervistona!!!!!
Bellissima!!!!! Grazie per il postaggio!

Volevo sottolineare una battuta del Gahanzo..

Riferendosi a Martin e del suo look dice:

"He thought it was time to put the wings away."


Ho immaginato la faccia di Martin quando ha informato ai ragazzi di questa sua scelta ..questo uomo è una sagoma!!!

Six Questions for ... Depeche Mode

It's been a bit of a rocky road for synth-pop pioneers Depeche Mode this year. More specifically, it's been rough for frontman Dave Gahan. First he was felled by a bout of gastroenteritis, causing the cancellation of a handful of gigs. Once he recovered from that, he promptly tore a calf muscle, leading to a couple more missed shows. But as the band comes over for the U.S. leg of its summer tour, it's been relatively smooth sailing. "Sounds of the Universe" is an impressive addition to the band's discography, hearkening back to the band's classic sound, with the songwriting to match. Keyboardist Andy Fletcher checked in prior to the band's gig tonight at Nissan Pavilion.

When all of these calamities happen do you ever feel like it's a sign to call it quits?
I should call it the Tour Leg of Doom. But the concerts themselves are amazing. Generally speaking we've never had to cancel hardly any shows so it's all a mystery, really. God's certainly not liking us at the moment. Actually, Dave was very lucky because he had gastroenteritis and they found this tumor very early. So I think he feels he's actually quite blessed that they found this thing so early. And he's been performing absolutely amazing. Sometimes I'm playing my keyboards and I just look up in awe. (Laughs.) He's really been in top form.

Every time you ask a band their favorite record they've done they always say it's the most recent one...
Well, I don't say that. I think it's very hard to judge. When you're speaking to bands at that point, when the album's [just] finished, it's really hard to judge it because you've heard every track about a thousand times over weeks and weeks in the studio. So I always give it a year or two before I can judge. My favorite albums of Depeche Mode are "Violator" and "Black Celebration," personally. [Ed. Note: Correct answers!] And I won't actually be able to judge this one until next year or something.

"Sounds of the Universe" has a bit more of a throwback sound compared to the last couple of albums.
It's quite analog. [Songwriter] Martin [Gore] has this obsession of buying vintage synthesizers on eBay. So there was a synthesizer arriving every day. We just open the box and there it is. So it's a lot more electronic sounding. It is interesting -- some of the synths we've used in the past, so it is catching up with our past a bit.

(More after the jump.)

You've been doing this for a very long time. What's the biggest thing that would have been a real shock to you in, say, 1985?
Obviously the Internet thing. We're live on the Internet when we're doing the gig. People start complaining about the set list when they're not actually at the gig. They're online somewhere in Nebraska. It's quite bizarre. We've always tried to keep on the cutting edge of everything but so much is happening so fast. When we were considering doing this album, the variety of ways we could have released it is just phenomenal. It's hard to find the best route. It's exciting stuff. Unfortunately, the recording industry is down a lot. But live music is still very, very popular. Music is more popular now than it's every been. It's just they're getting the music from different sources and generally not paying any money for it. But fortunately for groups live is really healthy. The amount of festivals in Europe is incredible. A band can make money just by doing three months of European summer festivals.

What songs would you say get the biggest responses from the crowd these days?
Well, I mean, "Enjoy the Silence." And "Never Let Me Down Again," which has this amazing crowd waving effect that Dave gets going that's pretty exciting. Some of the new songs -- "Wrong" is going down really well. The hardest thing about our set list is actually compiling it. It's so difficult with so many songs. We can't do a Robert Smith and play for three-and-a-half hours. I don't think Dave can run around and dance for that long. The problem with the Cure is they did it a couple of times and then when they went back to a normal set people complained.

That's another thing about the Internet. People sure like to complain.
Our forum is like one long moan. (Laughs.) They're supposed to be the biggest Depeche Mode fans and they moan about everything. And they know more about Depeche Mode than I do. It's incredible.

By David Malitz | July 28, 2009
Fonte: The Washington Post


Edited by *RansieDM* - 29/7/2009, 15:58

troppo ridere quando dicono che nel forum ufficiale si lamentano troppo!!

Mitico Fletch!!

Pop Quiz: Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode

Even for a band that's come to expect disaster, this has been a particularly rough year for Depeche Mode. Within days of setting off on a world tour in support of its album "Sounds of the Universe," the long-running British group was sidelined when singer Dave Gahan took a few days off to get a cancerous tumor removed - and then a couple more after he injured his leg in Spain. But Depeche Mode remains undaunted. Barring any further ER visits, the band will bring more than 30 years of delightful wrist-slashing electronic hits to Shoreline Amphitheatre on Wednesday. We checked in with keyboardist Andy Fletcher during the group's stop in New York.

Q: Do you ever feel bad standing in the back pushing buttons while Dave Gahan is out there risking life and limb?

A: You can't exert much effort behind a keyboard, unfortunately. It's not the most rock and roll of instruments. And you can't have every single member of the band be going out there going crazy. A band is made up of different individuals. I like my backroom job and certainly wouldn't like to be in Dave's position. Definitely not. If you've seen my dancing moves you wouldn't want me to be in Dave's position.

Q: On this tour, Dave has had a cancerous tumor removed and seriously injured his leg. Why are you still on the road?

A: It's been an amazing tour, really. In some ways, certainly in Europe, it's been our most successful tour ever. But it's been our most calamitous as well. The great thing is we're up and running. Dave in particular has shown a lot of competitive spirit, you might say, to carry on the way he's doing.

Q: Most bands would have retreated to their private islands by now.

A: Well, the thought would have been if the bladder cancer prognosis was different but actually you couldn't get a better prognosis. It was caught very early and it was low grade. It was just a question of zapping it out.

Q: So what you're saying is, that for a guy who was once declared clinically dead, this was really nothing.

A: I said to Dave to other day, "I can't wait for your autobiography." It's quite a story developing.

Q: It's possible that some of the accidents are a direct result of getting distracted by Martin Gore's ridiculous outfits. Have you ever suggested that he tone it down with the leather skirts and silver suits?

A: I've given him lots of suggestions over the years like, "You can't do that," or, "You can't wear that." He's in his own world in regards to that. If you look at the three members, we haven't actually done it on purpose, I'm more the straight man in the back and everyone can look at and think, "I could be him." And then you've got Martin dressing in skirts and silver and looking sometimes quite feminine. And you've got the macho singer. So it's evolved into that and I think it's a good setup.

Q: Have you managed to keep out of harm's way?

A: Actually on the first gig of the tour in Israel, I had the first bit of bad news: My father died. So it's been calamitous for me as well. The good thing is we've been putting in some great performances. I would say Paris and Milan on this tour were our best-ever gigs. So there's been some high points.

Grande Zio Fletch!!!!!! ahahahah bella questa intervista!!!!

mi sembra che questa sia la prima volta che parli del padre ...

QUESTIONNAIRE
Depeche Mode's Martin Gore
By Cam Lindsay

Almost 30 years into their career, Depeche Mode continue to uphold their reputation as pioneers of electronic pop and the alternative music scene. So what keeps the engine running after three decades? "I think it's the quest for eternally making interesting music that has a place in the contemporary world," explains chief songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist Martin Gore. "We don't want to make retro-sounding albums, even though we might use some old gear." Sounds of the Universe, their 12th studio album, was created thanks to Gore's addiction to eBay, where he spent his time and money bidding on vintage analog equipment, and almost immediately you can hear the influence. However, Speak & Spell, it isn't. "We're aware of what we've done in the past and try not to retrace our steps too much," he adds. "We always try to somehow forge forwards and do things that are different. So although we've used a lot of vintage equipment we've also melded that quite well with modern equipment and technology." Judging by the last four albums, it's apparent that they'll likely never record another Violator or even find the legions of new fans that album did, but Sounds further cements that DM are as relevant as ever, and really should pamper any fan's need.

What are you up to?
Obviously Depeche Mode is taking up the majority of my time at the moment. We're just starting a month of promotion for the new album. And then we go straight into rehearsals and then straight into a tour, which starts in early May.

What are your current fixations?
An eBay addiction. I've been buying lots of old vintage analog synthesizers and drum machines, sequencers and guitar pedals. They heavily helped to shape the sound of the new record.

Why do you live where you do?
Initially the answer to that question is very boring. I got married to an American who suffered living with me in England for 11 years, and then forced me to live in America because she couldn't take it anymore. But I've since divorced and I happen to actually like living in Santa Barbara. It's a nice town with great weather all year 'round. It leads to a very healthy lifestyle there. I play on a soccer team whenever I'm home.

Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art:
I recently started reading poems by this old Persian poet named Hāfez, and he's been translated into English. The translations are much more modern, but I find it mind-blowing what he was writing about and how he got away with it.

What has been your most memorable or inspirational gig and why?
There were two concerts that I saw close to each other around 1981. They were within a couple of months, and they were so markedly different, which is why I think they were so inspirational. I saw Kraftwerk and the great stage set-up, the starkness of everything and the robot style of their stage presence, which was such a contrast to a few weeks later seeing the Ramones. Ramones were just so frenetic, it was unbelievable that there wasn't a second between songs and it was all so fast. It was really pure adrenaline.

What have been your career highs and lows?
If I had to pick one career high it would be playing the Rose Bowl in 1988 [recorded for 101], just because it was such a landmark, not just for us but for alternative music and electronic music. It was a big venture, a big risk at the time. Nobody really believed an alternative and especially electronic band could play that sort of venue. And we proved everybody wrong. Career lows — oh, we've had a few of those [laughs]. Probably the Songs of Faith and Devotion tour, because it just dragged on for so long. You just felt so morose during parts of it because there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I'm not surprised we all turned to various drugs and alcohol to try and get through the boredom of it. We did a so-called "exotic leg" where we played Singapore and the Philippines, and we were just thinking, "Why are we playing here? We've been on tour for a year, why are we in Singapore?" It's remarkable that we could, but after a year of touring you start thinking, "Well, we don't really sell records here. There is an audience to come see us, but what is the whole point of this?" Had it been the first part of the tour, maybe it wouldn't have felt so depressing. It was definitely a life-altering experience because once you subject yourself to that much drugs and alcohol, I don't think you can then easily turn away from them, so that caused us a lot of problems.

What's the meanest thing ever said to you before, during or after a gig?
There's one thing that always sticks in our minds, and I wonder if this person remembers saying it, he probably doesn't. But we played the Ritz in New York twice really early on in our career, and the first time we played there everything was fine and it was a good show. And we went back a second time not long after, maybe within six months, and we had to do Top of the Pops [in England] and then they put us on the Concorde to get us to New York in time to play the show at the Ritz. Concorde had problems and we were delayed. So we ended up getting there later than we would have done taking a normal plane. We arrived late in New York and then we had a really late soundcheck. And you didn't go on till really late, two in the morning at the Ritz in those days, so we were all totally jetlagged, all of our equipment broke down and it was an absolutely dreadful show. And I remember leaving the venue very depressed and some guy came up to us and said, "What happened to you guys? You used to be good!" [Laughs] That was a long time ago but we still remember that one.

What traits do you most like and most dislike about yourself?
One of the things I dislike is that I think I'm quite obsessive and can be, if I let myself, pedantic about things. What do I like about myself? I think I'm fairly easygoing and I'm quite generous.

What's your idea of a perfect Sunday?
Probably getting up not too early and going to play soccer. Actually I'd get up, not too early, watch a game of soccer — watch Arsenal, the team I support — that I've Tivoed (so I don't have to get up so early) and then go to play a game of soccer.

What advice should you have taken, but did not?
There were lots of people over the years who said to me, "Just drink in moderation." But y'know, some people don't find it that easy.

What would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed, and have you?
We've never kicked anyone of the band. I can't think of any reasons that would make me kick anyone out of the band, and I don't think it's my place to do so.

What do you think of when you think of Canada?
I think we've had a great time visiting Canada in our career. We have had great shows there and we have great fans. I've been there on personal trips; not so long ago I had a Canadian girlfriend who was from the Okanagan, so I went up there for a trip.

What was the first LP/cassette/CD/eight track you ever bought with your own money?
The first album that I ever owned was actually given to me by my cousin — Ziggy Stardust — and it was a really huge influence for me. I was really into the whole glam scene, I liked Gary Glitter and was really into David Bowie after Ziggy Stardust. To this day I'd say he's my biggest hero — David Bowie and Iggy Pop, I think.

How do you spoil yourself?
Well, I don't like to keep talking about it, but buying things on eBay is my guilty pleasure.

If I wasn't playing music I would be…
I think I would be a very sad and lonely individual somewhere. It's the only thing I've been interested in from a very young age. I fell in love with music when I discovered rock'n'roll at the age of ten, through my mother.

What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?
I remember having a mini party in my room after the MTV Awards in 2006, I think it was, and Christina Ricci turned up for a while and reapplied my makeup for me in the bathroom.

What song would you like to have played at your funeral?
Of the top of my head, it might be really depressing, but I like "The Far West" by Rod McEwen.

Daniel Miller Interview: Mute Records & The Synth Britannia Revolution

It's fitting that the current series of Kraftwerk reissues are being released in sleeves printed with the Mute records logo. For that label that was arguably the first to take up the baton that their astonishing new sound had laid down and run with it though the outer fringes of electronic noise — and of course, with groups such as Depeche Mode and Erasure, rampant through the pop charts. Mute founder Daniel Miller is one of the talking heads on the wonderful new BBC documentary Synth Britannia, but we thought we'd give him a bell for a more in-depth natter . . .

When did you first encounter Kraftwerk?

There were the first two albums, which I heard but wasn't really taken by. Autobahn was the one that really grabbed me, that was '74. Year zero. I was listening ot a lot of electronic music already, and I was listening to a lot of bands who used electronics, Can, Neu! and Faust. I was listening to Carl Shcultz a lot, which was very droney, which I was very into at the time. And then Kraftwerk came out of nowhere and it seemed to make so much sense to me, it brought my musical future and past into one place. Pop element that I really liked, and the interesting electronics.

Is it strange that a lot of early electronic music has been lumped in with post punk music? Groups like Kraftwerk and Suicide were around long before punk

I don't like the term post punk, because for most people that's jagged, angular, Gang of Four style music. Suicide were the exception. Obviously Neu! were a punk band before punk, Hawkwind were a punk band before punk. What happened was there was a coming together of a number of things that caused all these people, including me, to make music at that particular moment. There was the work of Kraftwerk or Giorgio Morodor and the electronic stuff that had gone before. There was the inspiration of punk to go out and do what you wanted, and the DIY revolution, and then the first cheap synths coming out. Economics and pop music are always closely linked. People in the late-50s couldn't afford a Fender Stratocaster, but when the cheaper versions came out it enabled them to make rock and roll music. In the same way we weren't able to afford MOOGs and ARPs in the 70s, but when the early Korgs came out it was so different because we could afford it.

How long did it take to master your first Korg?

I was doing stuff day one. It was pretty simple, I was immediately recording, right from the word go, and I was learning as I went along. On that particular synthesiser they used very odd, unconventional terminology that didn't relate to what you'd normally use. That was the first synthesiser I had so I thought it was the industry standard terminology, terms like 'traveller', 'expand' but nobody used that apart from that synth, and I had to relearn all that.

What reaction did you get as The Normal from punk fans?

I toured with Robert Rental, who had also made a single on his own. We'd met through a Throbbing Gristle gig. We were only going to do one show, but we got offered a Rough Trade tour with Stiff Little Fingers, we did that, and it went down pretty badly, with quite violent reactions. It was quite good fun, we were never in danger of our lives, and we almost didn't want to go down well, but there was always a clutch of people who after the shows were really into it, and that was really encouraging, You always felt like they were going to go on and spread the word.

The documentary makes a lot of the built environment, the society that was around in Britain at the time, did that feed into The Normal and your music?

It didn't have a direct influence, but there's no question that was around when I was working in that environment. it was a pretty grim place, that time in Britain, it wasn't a direct reaction to it really. I recognised a lot of in the JG Ballard books, that obviously had an influence, but I was doing it in a vacuum, it was all my world in my own head, as far as I was concerned.

Were the electronic groups taking a more intellectual approach than punk?

I don't think so, I think we were absorbing our contemporary culture. We were reading books and watching films. Wire or Gang of Four were taking a very intellectual approach.

I always see Wire as quite removed from the rest of the guitar groups of the time though...

Wire were in many ways an electronic band who used guitars. That's what I always thought of Wire as. They couldn't play their instruments very well, and the way the music turned out sounded quite electronic.

Did the speed of technological advance affect things?

The technology was moving already. Part of us lot, the Synth Britannia lot if you want to call it that, we got on board the technology moving train, and it carried on moving. Originally you had to play everything by hand, then pretty soon basic sequencers were around, then basic computers, it all moved pretty quickly. There were things like the Roland MC4 that came along in 1980, 81, which was a very basic computerised sequencer, which was available to people who'd had a hit - it was expensive, but not super expensive. One of the natures of people who want to create new sounds is they want new synthesisers to figure out ways of creating those new sounds. So you'll notice, including me and the Human League and various others of those groups, we all started off with one little synthesisers and ended up with fucking banks of them. I don't really know any of those other guys that well, but we've always ended up accumulating things over the years. I don't really collect synths, apart from my one purchase which is the Kraftwerk synth.

Ah yes, in the doc there's the 'Autobahn' Do you have a go on that?

It wasn't really working when I bought it, but the guy who does a lot of maintenance work in the studio has tried to fix it, and it nearly works now.

Was this the last time Britain could really lead the world?

I think it was probably the last British new form of music. The introduction of electronics into music, obviously hip hop, drum & bass, techo, it all comes from that, you can trace it all back to Kraftwerk really. What we did, and what some of the Germans did at the time, was bring it to a more populist level, German groups like DAF and people like that. It's hard to say... I was taken slightly out of context on the programme, I keep saying it's not a very English form, but the context of that was more in terms of the media, not the people who made it or the people who llked it.

A lot of it sounds very British, in terms of aesthetic and lyrics...

Yeah there's a slightly eccentric view of life which is very English. And we invented the hovercraft, for fuck's sake. The Americans obviously invented hip hop and made it huge, which is their usual thing, but we invented the computer, the internet, the jet engine, and the Americans usually make it in their own image and sell it back to the world. In the 60s we did it and sent it back to them. Anyway, when I said it's not very English it's very much the media response. They felt they had to deal with this, and then as soon as some fucking fourpiece rock band comes along, they go after that, because that's where their heart is.

When Gary Numan had his breakthrough with The Pleasure Principle, how did that change things?

I didn't really know his stuff, it came from nowhere a little bit. I was quite surprised by it. I quite liked it, but I think all the early pioneers - and I think that came across in the programme quite well - were rather taken aback by it. Like Phil Oakey said, we felt that's our chance gone now, Gary Numan's taken it. But I wasn't really going for the pop thing anyway at that point, so it was a mixed feeling. I didn't think it was that great, I thought well if that's what electronic music is then I'm not sure how I feel about that, but on the other hand if people are listening to this, then maybe there's room for something else.

Did it open doors for Mute artists?

I don't know, it's hard to say. I suppose it did in a way... our records sounded very different from Gary Numan's records, his used guitars and drums and bass, certainly on the first lot, but ours were different. It was all part of a change. fter punk, I think people were really desperate for new things, there was this openness, and that was the door we all got through when Gary Numan had that first hit.

Were you surprised how Depeche Mode were received?

With Depeche that was the first time I thought this is real pop music. That's what I said to them when I first started to work with them, I said 'let's do a single', I've got no idea how pop music works, but I am a fan of pop music and this should be a hit. It is pop music, and let's not pretend it's anything else, let's see how we go and if it doesn't work out go somewhere else. So we didn't do a contract, we just put out a single and they were reasonably happy with how they went, we put out another single and that was a hit, and the next was an even bigger hit and it just went on from there really.
No, not really. I knew they were hit records, I felt they were great pop records, and I felt the time was right for those records to come out, we weren't in the middle of some horrendous Britpop thing. They were homemade really, there was no pop expertise behind them. There was no marketing expertise behind the record, we were doing it by the seat of our pants. I was producing it, but I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, I just knew slightly more than they did. As time went on we got more people involved in the marketing and promotion side of it, but at the beginning it was just us. We were very confident about it, I wouldn't say we were arrogant, but we were very confident, because all the major labels were saying to Depeche - because by that point everybody was trying to sign them - everybody was saying 'oh you'll never have a hit with Mute, you'd never have international success with Mute, they're too small, they don't know what they're doing'. That definitely inspired us all to make it work, so we really went for it. Our intention was not to put out a nice single and then for somebody else to pick it up, we were trying to prove that we could do it ourselves in an industry that was changing very fast.

Looking at the way that Mute developed, was it conscious to put out records by NON and Neubauten as a counter to the pop?

NON was a very early Mute release before Depeche. I met Boyd Rice really early on soon after The Normal came out and we did some work together. That was Mute 004, so that was pretty early. Neubauten and stuff wasn't really a counter, I just wanted to do the music I like. I really love pop music and I really love experimental music, I just don't like much in between. My teenage years were in the 60s, and that was the golden period of pop music in British history. I was very into music when I was a kid, obsessed by it, and that remained with me, and as time went on I got into much more experimental things, and that stayed with me, so that's always been what it is really.

Do you think labels too often forget that they can do both? Looking at Mute in the 80s you had huge hits with people like Erasure on one hand, and working with Diamanda Galas on the other...

I think a good independent label will reflect the tastes of its owner and the people who work there. A major label is trying to make money for their shareholders, it's two different things. You look at Domino, I think Domino's great because it completely reflects the tastes of the people who work there. Whereas Universal doesn't really reflect the tastes of the people who work there, it reflects the needs of the company. That's not a bad thing, it's just two different approaches. The music I put out being Diamanda Galas and Erasure - even though they worked together and were huge fans of each other - it made sense to me, they were logical releases to me. I am the only person who likes everything on Mute, and that's that really.

me sà che stasezione per me èoff........nu ce capisco una sega d'inglese!mannaggia